Author: Joanna Bourke, Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London – Academia.edu, ORCID, ResearchGate, Wikipedia

Abstract: »This article uses the sadist murder in 1937 of Dorothy May Everett in Newcastle (NSW) to reflect on sexual violence and psychiatry in Australia between the 1920s and the 1950s. Everett’s murder incited debates about Australian masculinity, class, racial degeneration, and sex crimes. It led to an unprecedented popular interest in the psychiatric diagnosis of “sadism”. Through an exploration of public discussions around Everett’s murder, as well as similar sadistic murders of women in New South Wales at the time, I examine the ways Australian newspapers reported on sadism as a sexual perversion. What do these sadistic rape-murders reveal about everyday constructions of the sexual sadist in Australia? How did people gain knowledge of perversions? Did psychiatric classification systems make a difference? Ian Hacking’s concept of “making up” people is productive for reflecting on the spread of knowledge about psychiatric understandings of sexual violence.« (Source: Journal of Australian Studies)

Contents:
Wikipedia: History of Oceania: History of Australia / History of Australia | : Psychiatry | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in Australia